eSalesTraffic Highlights Six Local SEO Myths

A commitment to local SEO can help companies engage their buyers across the region and improve their brand recognition throughout the area marketplace. But several myths regarding local SEO techniques still confuse small business owners and prevent them from achieving a full return for their investment in local SEO campaigns. To help provide clarity to several confusing local SEO issues, in this article we’ll dispel six of the leading local SEO myths.

Your Business Will Disappear if You Don’t Claim Your Page

Verifying your business will ensure that any updates to your business listings will automatically show up when a query is made through Google. Contact details, opening hours and business photos will automatically be highlighted when a person searches for your business, after it has been verified through Google. However, just because a business has not been verified or claimed through Google, doesn’t mean it disappears. A business’s verification status does not impact its ranking.

Setting a Large Search Area Will Allow Your Business to be Ranked in All Included Towns

Through the Google listings, Google allow businesses to set their service areas. This area is supposed to be the distance the company will travel to serve their customers. But many business owners believe if they set the largest service area possible, their business will rank in these areas. This simply isn’t true. Despite setting a large service area within Google listings, your company will only rank within the town used for its business listings.

Local SEO Can Be Completed Separately from Organic SEO

Many business owners find that they’re able to gain traction in their organic SEO listings without the same level of performance in local search. This leads some to trying to find a specialist solely for their local campaigns. But local SEO and organic SEO are inextricably linked. It’s important to work with an SEO firm that understands the value of both local and organic SEO and how to use these two marketing tools together to form robust, targeted marketing campaigns.

Deleting a Listing in Google My Business Actually Removes the Listing from Search

We know that duplicate listings can be a challenge for many business owners. One commonly attempted removal method is the owner claiming the duplicate for their business and then deleting it through the Google My Business dashboard. This only serves to make the listing unverified. The listing will still exist on Google Maps and may still rank highly, particularly if the details were still present in the listing when it was deleted from the Google My Business dashboard.

Posting on G+ Improves a Company’s Ranking

Some business owners are under the impression that if they post regularly on their Google + page that their company’s listing will rank more highly. But Google has long since stopped using the name Google+ page to refer to a business’s social media page. And it’s almost impossible for a searcher to find a business owner’s Google + posts unless they searched for the company directly. This means there is no ranking benefit to posting regularly on Google+.

Google Only Displays Listing Data from the Google My Business Dashboard

While Google gives business owners the opportunity to edit the information within their Google My Business dashboard, the dashboard is not the sole source of information Google uses when presenting listings data. Google updates verified listings constantly by scraping information from the company’s business website and using inputs made from edits through Google Maps.

Maintaining accurate information on local SEO campaigns can help keep organizations moving forward to their local area marketing objectives. To discuss the myths highlighted in this article with a trusted industry expert, call our office team directly today!